N 122   My Recent Connections with Books

I am an amateur translator who  does according to my wish. As I have written before I had translated more than 10 books and produced them with my own money , except for the last one, which is  “From a mountain in Tibet “.

Because I say recent I will have to start from this book. In 2022 October while visiting Bangkok I went to  Kinokuniya bookshop as usual . I didn’t have a special book I wanted to have in mind, so when I saw this book I chose it because Tibet is a place I am interested in plus another mind broadening book.

I read the book and found it interesting ,that I finished it before I got back to home in Taunggyi. I decided to translate it ,and finished it in time before I left for Chiengmai, where we were going to live temporarily. Before leaving I met with producer U LO and he said he will produce it without even reading it.So, I said to myself…. just let us wait and see if it will become true.The time is the beginning of March 2023.

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I had been warned that to make a book would take some time .It was June when he asked me to write a preface for the book and send me the cover of it. So it was assured that it will become a book. But the book came out about the end of August. 

I heard it sold well and that  he will have to do a second edition.I was glad for the producer because he did not lose money . As for my work I asked for 50 copies of it, some of which I sold and some given to friends as present.

In the meantime I had been looking  for a book which I had wanted to translate. I heard about it from the venerable Sayadaw of Kham Buddhist Spychology Institute in Taunggyi. The author is Sao Noan Oo ,daughter of the late Sawbwa of Lawksawk,and friend of Sayadaw. Sayadaw didn’t have the book and neither the author ,who is living in England. I looked for it in Amazon page and found out that there  was only one old copy with the price tag of 52 $ . It would be 150000 kyats not including the shipping fee by Myanmar currency and I think it is not worth the price. So I gave up about acquiring the book. Oh…. the name of the book is My Vanished World. 

But my daughter’s friend who is also a Facebook friend of mine  Thuzar Khin from The Netherlands ,wanted to give books to me as present  ordered it along with some Silk Road books ,to be sent to me in Chiengmai. So before long the book got into my hands.Just going through it for a while I decided to translate it and finished it after some time.

During this time I contacted the author ,who is living in England for permission to translate and produce it ,but at first she was reluctant ,because she was afraid the translation would be incorrect or faulty, especially if it was translated by a Burmese translator. I assured her that I myself is a Shan and know Shan customs well and even the spoken language of Shan peoples and Sawbwas well and that I usually do direct translation . So in the end she gave me permission to do so.

But a Burmese translator who had the book in hand, and knowing that I was doing it ,translated the book quickly and advertised the date of the circulation .My producer told me that he would produce it if I wish, but that wouldn’t be proper with a country with only a handful of  readers. Besides that the book is not written in favor of the military of Ne Win’s era, which had suppressed the Shan people and where the Sawbwas had become victims and faced a tragic end.Our family decided it was not a proper time to produce it now ,but to wait for sometime when we can do it freely.So my draft would be lying in a drawer by itself for the time being.

I had been wanting to translate another book about the Silk Road.Despite the many books Thuzar and my daughter Nge bought for me I chose to translate “Journeys on the Silk Road “ which I found in the internet. I didn’t hope it will become a Burmese version book, but I have to do something to pass the time ,while I am able to do it. I did it  only about half a day  and it took three months to finish it. I don’t like it much because it is not particularly  about the Silk Road but mostly about the explorer Aurel Stein.Whether it will come out as a Burmese translation depends on the producer…..

During this time my producer who had published two of Jung Chang’s books wanted to publish another one, which is Empress Zishi. Some years ago I had translated that book because a producer asked me to do so. I finished it and submitted it to him , but he didn’t like it and did nothing about it. Maybe he didn’t like my direct translation and it is not a flowery one. I didn’t ask to get it back, so the script is in his hands the whole time.But now my producer said he wanted to read it and to get it back from him. 

At last I got back the script and passed it to my producer who had interest in it. It was heartening for me when I heard him said he will start computer typing it. So if it become real my work would not go to waste.

I had written about my connections with books. I am living an idle life in Chiengmai now with nothing special to do.I have to look for things to occupy my body and mind the whole day. It is thankful that I like reading,  listening to news and music watching documentaries from  You Tube .Facebook is a thing that consume our time without us knowing it , but I don’t read every detail of every post .I just scroll through it. Dramas from Netflix cannot capture my mind now because I cannot find something I like as before.

 

Many will criticize me that as an old woman I am not fulfilling religious duties for the benefit of next life. But I think I  have been good ,living according to Buddha’s teachings ,not committing any sins, give charities and alms as much as I can. I am not saying that I am not doing any religious duties. On the contrary  I am doing as much as I can as a good Buddhist ,and never forget, but bear in mind the three gems which are Buddha, Dhamma, and Sanghas , that  my next life will not be that bad ,but a good and satisfying one…